More cheers today when the rover planners (drivers) reported that the first
MSL drive went perfectly. It wouldn't be much of a rover mission if we
couldn't drive, so this was very good news. I feel extremely fortunate to
be involved in yet another successful Mars rover mission--we are now 4 for
4 (Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity), with 2 rovers still
active. Wow.

I spent most of the day continuing to work Mastcam characterization
sequences into the near-term plan. In addition to the daily tactical work,
many people are focused on planning what the rover will do for the next
week or so. I've been representing the Mastcam team's interests in these
strategic planning discussions and meetings, and despite numerous
constraints and evolving scientific goals, it has been going fairly well.
But it struck me today that it is a bit strange that I have been so focused
on Mastcam. To explain, I must first summarize how I got involved in the
first place: In 2004, many teams of scientists were preparing proposals
in response to NASA's announcement of an opportunity to develop, test and
operate instruments for the MSL mission. I was invited to join some of
these teams, and was included as a Co-Investigator on the ChemCam, MARDI
(descent imager) and MAHLI (hand-lens imager) proposals, but not on the
Mastcam proposal. The MARDI, MAHLI and Mastcam proposals were all
submitted by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS), a small company in San
Diego specializing in building cameras to be flown on spacecraft. The
company was founded by Mike Malin after he was awarded a MacArthur
Fellowship ("genius grant") in 1987. Each of the proposals included a clause stating that if all 3 were selected,
MSSS would give NASA a 30% discount. Apparently NASA couldn't pass that
up, and all 3 cameras were selected to fly on MSL. In addition to
consolidating the design and test efforts at MSSS, the 3 science teams were
merged into one big team. So I became a member of the Mastcam team, along
with the other Co-Is on the MARDI and MAHLI science teams. But I always
expected to focus on MAHLI and MARDI, having put more effort into the
development of those cameras. While I didn't foresee my recent heavy
involvement in Mastcam planning, I was happy to contribute to the team
effort. I recognized the importance of getting the Mastcam
characterization data needed to improve the quality of the images as soon
as possible, and jumped right in. Hopefully this effort will pay off--we
expect the first results of the focus and stereo tests tomorrow morning.